Cinematheque shows fully restored THIEF OF BAGDAD Thursday at the CapitolDouglas Fairbanks was the greatest swashbuckling star of the silent screen. He appeared in such blockbusters as THE MARK OF ZORRO, THE THREE MUSKETEERS, ROBIN HOOD, and THE BLACK PIRATE. But his favorite of all his films, and by far the most elaborate, was THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, a 1924 Arabian Nights adaptation that we present in a new, 149-min. digital restoration on Thursday night at 7pm on the big screen of the Capitol Theatre, 1390 W. 65th St. at Detroit Ave. The charming, balletic, athletic Fairbanks plays a dashing young robber who poses as a prince to win the daughter of a Caliph. This opulent, Raoul Walsh-directed fantasy was one of the most expensive of all silent movies, unfolding on massive, lavish sets and boasting impressive flying and magic effects that made the movie the AVATAR of its day. This new restoration preserves the film’s original color tinting and includes a new orchestral score by Britain’s foremost contemporary silent film composer, Carl Davis. Special admission is $10; Cinematheque members $8; age 25 & under $6. No passes, twofers, or radio winners and no Cleveland Cinemas passes or discounts. $10 tickets available can be purchased in advance at www.clevelandcinemas.com. Watch the trailer here.

Landmark American indie THE LITTLE FUGITIVE restored for its 60th anniversaryIn Ray Ashley, Morris Engel, and Ruth Orkin's groundbreaking 1953 movie THE LITTLE FUGITIVE, a seven-year-old Brooklyn boy is tricked into believing that he has killed his older brother. So he runs away to Coney Island and spends a day among the rides, games, and attractions there. This landmark American independent film, shot with non-professional actors in real locations, inspired countless young filmmakers. See it in a new 35mm restoration on Friday or Saturday. Time Out New York recently awarded the film five stars (the magazine's highest rating), commenting that "there's influential, and then there's this 1953 microbudgeted beauty that's made its way into the DNA of everything from cinema vérité to the French New Wave." Here's the original trailer.

TWO YEARS AT SEA is gorgeous, b&w portrait of bearded Scottish recluse“They could be images unearthed from another era, perhaps from another planet—a verdant dreamscape of fog and forest, photographed on gorgeously distressed black-and-white film stock.” So says Time Out New York ‘s four-star review of TWO YEARS AT SEA(2011), the first feature by London experimental filmmaker and gallery artist Ben Rivers, who shoots movies about society’s outsiders on semi-antique cameras and then hand-develops the 16mm film himself. Materiality is one of the hallmarks of this minimalist, monochromatic movie, a near-wordless portrait of a bearded recluse living close to the land in a dilapidated house in the remote Scottish Highlands. Time almost stands still, letting the engaged viewer ponder the man’s past and present life and his place in the universe. See this 2012 New York Film Festival selection in a 35mm film print on Friday or Saturday. Print this email and present it at the box office and pay only $7 ($6 if you're a Cinematheque member). It's our Deal of the Week! (Limit two discount admissions per print-out.) Watch the film's trailer here.

A faithful man tries to save the world in Tarkovsky's final film THE SACRIFICETHE SACRIFICE (1986), Andrei Tarkovsky’s last film (he died from cancer in 1986 at age 54), is a solemn, magnificent fable about the loss of spirituality in the modern world. Shot is Sweden with Ingmar Bergman’s longtime cinematographer Sven Nykvist and Bergman's frequent star Erland Josephson, the movie tells of a man celebrating his birthday with friends when nuclear war breaks out. To avert disaster, the man makes a pact with the Almighty -- forswearing everything he has if the world will be spared. See it in a 35mm, English-subtitled color print on Saturday or Monday.

John Ewing's Top Ten Films at the 37th Cleveland International Film FestivalHere are the ten films that Cinematheque Director John Ewing is most interested in seeing at the 37th Cleveland Int'l Film Festival, April 3-14 at Tower City Cinemas. This does not mean that you should also see them, or that you will like them if you do. All moviegoers should favor their own interests when choosing among the festival's many offerings.

Remember: use the code CINE when buying tickets and save $2 off the purchase price!

Work of two filmmakers goes on view in CIA's Reinberger GalleriesJenny Perlin and Steve Roden are two American independent filmmakers (from NY and CA, respectively) whose work will be on view in CIA's Reimberger Galleries from Friday, March 29 through Saturday, May 4. On continuous loop will be Perlin's "The Object of Society Is," "Neither a Winding Nor an Unwinding," and "The Perlin Papers" (8 short films), and Roden's "Everything She Left Behind That Fit in My Hands," "A Lexicon of Walter Benjamin’s Silences," "Striations," "Three Landscapes," and "Four Words for Four Hands (apples.mountains.over.frozen.)." Admission is free. The public opening of the exhibition is Friday night from 6 to 8pm.